


i try to be human

by kogaritsu



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M, mermaid rei, thats abt it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-07
Updated: 2020-11-07
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:47:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27441397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kogaritsu/pseuds/kogaritsu
Summary: A wave rolled beneath him, and the displacement of water revealed a horrifyingly short glimpse of ink black scales. Kaoru blinked, and they were out of sight with a minuscule splash that was covered quickly by another, much larger wave. He’d never seen any kind of fish with such coloring, but it was definitely not a shark.
Relationships: Hakaze Kaoru/Sakuma Rei
Comments: 2
Kudos: 36
Collections: Reikao Week 2020!





	i try to be human

**Author's Note:**

> for the last day of reikao week!

Sand parted beneath Kaoru’s feet as he hopped over beached jellyfish and heaps of seaweed among the shards of seashells. His surfboard leash dragged lazily behind him as he headed for the water. On the edge of low tide, the waves were almost perfect for a morning ride before work. The waves were icy when they washed over his legs, but Kaoru was quick to adjust, wading until his toes hardly brushed the gritty sand. Years of practice guided him into mounting his board, and bobbing over the smaller waves that rolled his way. 

As the sun began to rise, the surface of the water was mirror-like, reflecting the parting clouds of the previous day’s storm. It was, as always, a calming sight to start what would likely be a very long day. While his job opened the door to meeting lots of pretty girls, it also exposed him to plenty of assholes. So his morning surf was a necessity.

Something sharp, or rather several sharp somethings, brushed the exposed skin of Kaoru’s ankle, though nowhere close to hard enough to draw blood. Were he not confident in his knowledge of shark behavior, he’d believe there was a shark taste-testing his left leg. The alleged teeth, however, were much too small to be those of any shark larger than a nurse shark. As he contemplated what kind of deformed shark could be nibbling at his toes while he was trying to catch a good wave, those same sharp somethings scraped higher. A glance downward showed nothing directly below him, but he decided that paddling away from his stationary spot might help him prevent the loss of his leg. 

A wave rolled beneath him, and the displacement of water revealed a horrifyingly short glimpse of ink black scales. Kaoru blinked, and they were out of sight with a minuscule splash that was covered quickly by another, much larger wave. He’d never seen any kind of fish with such coloring, but it was definitely not a shark. With that knowledge in mind and a brand new wave on the horizon, he lowered his center of gravity and began to paddle. Odds were, he wouldn’t see fin or tail of it ever again, so he resigned to let someone know on his way back home.

The thought was floating over him, set aside for later when he dove with the incoming wave, opening his eyes just a second too early and catching a glimpse of something under the water. Inky hair fanned and floated like an anemone, framing a face too beautiful and sallow to belong to anything living- or human. A lot of thoughts crossed his mind as he began to surface, distracted by the water mirage he’d beared witness to. Just before he broke the surface, Kaoru could have sworn the thing under him moved, thick feathered eyelashes fluttering. 

Obviously, he missed his wave, heart rate jittering at an unhealthy speed against the front of his wetsuit. He thought about his options; clearly there was something profoundly fucked up in the water underneath him, and clearly he was possibly in a lot of danger. His mother’s parting gift to him was a hand-bound book of urban legends, but nothing in it matched whatever he’d just seen. Denial was the best decision, he concluded, and started paddling for shore. 

Or, rather, he would have started to paddle for shore, if not for the knife-like grip that closed around his calf and ripped him off of his board with the strength of a titan. Despite having just come up for air, the cold water shocked him. Slippery digits grasped at him, tighter with every move he made. Salt stung his eyes when they opened to look his captor in the face. 

Before him was an oil slick personified, black around every edge and sickly gray in the face; its eyes were a hollow white framed by red lashes. He was hesitant to call them eyelashes as they were much closer to thin, wispy fins that reminded him of catfish whiskers. The thing was beautiful in ways Kaoru had never seen before, watching him like a wildcat about to pounce. Bubbles erupted between them when he tried to move, feet kicking against the hand(?) holding him down in his conquest for oxygen. The longer he was held under, the tighter his chest felt. 

As if it’d figured him out, the creature pulled him back down, mouthing words around the water Kaoru was drowning in. Then, with no further preamble, it caged him against its body and forced their mouths together. Kaoru tried to fight back, but then it was exhaling into his mouth and the pressure from his empty lungs was partially alleviated. His ankles were free, wrists now held to keep him from swimming away, but he couldn’t find it within him to care. In a brilliant moment of desperation, he clawed closer, opening his mouth against the monster’s in hopes of getting a little bit more.

Clearly, his advance was misinterpreted, because the monster held him tighter, gills fluttering and chest rumbling with a sound unobscured by the water. Clawed hands scratched at his exposed wrists, and a deceptively pink tongue swept over his lips in an inhuman kiss. Oxygen deprivation had Kaoru pushing their mouths together harder, lips sliced to ribbons on sharp teeth and licked clean before he could worry. The fear caught up to him when the monster rumbled again, making him whimper at the feeling over those teeth nipping at him again. 

That whimper did something, because it let go of Kaoru like it was burned, out of reach and out of sight. Kaoru, without worrying about why he was set free, swam to the surface and gasped for air. His surfboard bobbed nearby, blessedly still attached to his ankle, and he clung to it like he’d lost the ability to tread water. After he was convinced he wasn’t drowning anymore, he pulled himself up, elbows wobbly. 

Kaoru was in the process of turning himself around to return to shore and (maybe) call out of work to recover from his near death experience when something brushed his foot again. Inky hair floated to the surface, visible before anything else, and he felt close to tears. But the face that greeted him was apologetic, forehead creased and mouth downturned. The creature crept closer, clawed hand reaching out to grope at Kaoru’s board. When it found a flat surface, its other hand deposited a beautiful shell on the board, then retracted to lurk in the water again. Those blank eyes were fixed on the space next to him, like they couldn’t see at all.

“I don’t understand.” Kaoru said, throat scratchy and voice shaking. He picked up the shell to examine it, finding it to be clean and not inhabited by anything. It was set on his other side to take home later.

As if it needed to be closer to him to get its point across, the monster gripped his board and pulled itself part of the way out of the water. Kaoru watched in paralyzed terror (and partial interest because he really hadn’t paid much attention to the _tail_ ) as it settled on the edge. It really was gorgeous, something out of a horror novel with its jet black scales and poreless skin. From the black faded into a deep maroon that dulled to an unnatural red as the scales crawled up the expanse of its midsection. Watching with eerily clouded eyes, the creature clawed even higher on Kaoru’s surfboard, seeming to be blindly feeling for something. There was only so much board he could scoot along, and something told him he didn’t want to submerge himself. So his thigh was, unfortunately, sacrificed to allow the poor creature a handhold.

The creature spoke only somewhat clearly, obviously facing difficulties due to the vast amount of teeth in his mouth, and by god were they terrifying teeth. They were jagged and long, scraping on its tongue with the words it tried to annunciate over and over. Kaoru caught some syllables, focusing on what he couldn’t with every repetition. Until he understood.

“Oh… Are you apologizing?” The creature nodded erratically, pulling itself closer. “It’s okay. You didn’t mean to scare me, right? It was an accident.”

On a horrible, thoughtless impulse, Kaoru reached out to touch the creature’s cheek, brushing his fingertips against a bone structure that could be human if he squinted. Instead of biting him, or acting out in any kind of aggressive way, the creature instead leaned into Kaoru’s hand, making some kind of chittering noise deep in its chest. It relaxed so easily it was almost comical, body sliding back into the water without a sound. Readjusting his position on the board was a little hard with only one hand, but Kaoru managed it. The creature wormed in between his knees, head pushing against his hand for more. In another world, it was kind of cute.

“You’re not so bad, huh? Just a big baby.” In retaliation, the creature turned just a little to nip Kaoru’s wrist hard enough to draw just a little blood. It was a challenge to stay still when it licked the drops of blood that escaped, humming happily and scoring Kaoru’s board even worse. “I forgive you, it’s okay.”

Wet hair stuck to him, luminous in the golden sunshine. He dragged his free hand’s fingers through it, humming a song his mother once sang to him. From the beach, voices echoed, and Kaoru felt hollow sadness when that poor creature tensed up in recognizable fear.


End file.
